Chapter 3: Logan & La Fay
(Special thanks to Morgaine the Mistress of the Rain for her inspiration and collaboration)
The heavy night captured the beams of the streetlights into well-defined pools. A neon sign flickered with an eerie red glow from the Hotel across the street. The air was thick with a mist that so desperately wanted to be rain but couldn't pull itself together. There was no traffic in this forsaken section of the city. Detective Logan stood aloof on the corner, the trail of cigarette smoke leading up from his pursed lips swirling over his head and dissipating into the street light above. From under the cover of his old Yankees cap his bright eyes pierced through the solemn night.
Heaving a sigh he slipped back into the doorway of the abandoned derelict of a building, never taking his steely stare from the entrance to the Hotel across the dark street. Concealed in the shadows, only the slight orange glow from his cigarette visible, Logan leaned on the building capturing the environment, longing to be spending his Friday night at Syd's, and not chasing some apparition of his partner's overactive imagination. With a last pull on his smoke, brightening the ash for just a moment, he flipped the spent cigarette into the street and looked down at his watch. Time seemed to slow to a crawl out here. He glanced up the street and then down, peering into the darkness, seeing a vast wasteland of nothing. Only a sewer rat scampered into an alley a block down scaring up the howl of a cat briefly cutting through the night.
Movement in the Hotel caught Logan's attention. His hand slipped into his jacket and rested lightly on his weapon-holstered snuggly there. His eyes squinted to cut through the dark entrance. The sound of unintelligible voices drifted across the street. Concentrating, he heard La Fay's voice, frustration permeated each syllable. Slowly Logan stepped into the street and ventured across the open space, moving stealthily toward the door. Just as he stepped onto the sidewalk near the Hotel, the door slammed and Lt. La Fay backed out onto the sidewalk-bumping square into her partner. Instinctively Logan wrapped his long arms around La Fay to prevent her from falling. She turned with a jerk looking up to Logan's eyes. Her stare held a mixture of hope and fear. Not the usual stoic hard walled stare Logan was used to seeing in his protected partner.
"Oh, it's you." La Fay muttered as she stepped back from Logan's grasp.
As she muttered the words her eyes caught Logan's and time paused. A flash chemical reaction electrified the night sending a slight riff down Logan's back. This was nothing new to Logan. There have been numerous times during their partnership in which the sexual tension had split through the air like a flash of lightening. At one point following a hostage crisis on the Upper East Side, huddled behind a dumpster in a dark alley they had even kissed. Both agreed it was the stress of the gunfight and was a fluke never to be repeated. Since then La Fay's guard had been impenetrable even by Logan's best covert efforts. During the brief lapse in time her words echoed through his brain bouncing off the crevices of his longing for her.
With a quick turn, La Fay began to walk away toward the car. Her head snapped around so fast, her hair breezed across Logan's face. He gave a moment to smell the passing, before slumping his shoulders and sighing to follow her down the street. La Fay's walk was even more strident tonight than usual. She reached the unmarked vehicle and quickly climbed in the driver side and cranked the engine. La Fay insisted on driving, something the other male Detectives used to rib Logan for. He slumped into the passenger side, almost instantly La Fay peeled off into the night, her acceleration closing Logan's door.
"Syd's?" Logan asked hopeful that the rest of his Friday evening would be spent in the warm comfort of his friends and ample alcohol at Syd's.
She shot a look at him through the corner of her eye, not moving her head as the car sped into the city through the night.
"Lt. . . ." Logan paused.
"What, Detective?" Her voice shot through the car.
"What did you find out?"
"Not much."
Logan glanced out the window at the passing buildings. The streetlights blurred through his field of vision. They had been chasing this "missing person" for over a week. Logan had been little to no help. He knew nothing of the investigation, let alone why it seemed to occupy so much of La Fay's entire being. His confusion had slowly begun to shift from curiosity to jealousy. This "phantom" had come between his partner and him. Logan had never really pined for La Fay. He had always been attracted to her in some way, but he had never let that slow his rather active love life. She was his partner, untouchable, out of reach. He laid his life in her hands on a daily basis and he was a firm believer that any kind of sex or romantic involvement would ultimately compromise their safety. Oh yes, he had other women to occupy him, however since the masquerade at Syd's his interest in the others had waned. Just as La Fay focused on finding this "phantom" Logan focused on La Fay.
